websites

There are 42 posts tagged websites (this is page 1 of 7).

Firefox Web Browser Can Make the Internet Easier to Read

I’ve been having a lot of trouble seeing clearly when trying to read websites. The style seems to be small, pale grey fonts which are very hard to read. No problem for a computer, or other machines. I wonder if these sites which are hard to read just expect machines and not human being to read the information? Are they just looking for web traffic for marketing. Content doesn’t seem to be very kingly when you can’t read it. Anyway, that’s a bit off topic but the issue really frustrates me, personally.

I found a way to change settings in Firefox to make websites easier to read. It seems to be working, so far.

Go into your settings, click those three stacked lines in the right top bar of the web browser. Then Settings. From there you should be able to find the Languages section. See images below. Just click the “zoom text only” to turn that feature on. Then go into Advanced and set a minimum font size which your web browser should stick to when it opens web pages. The minimum font size may not work 100%. Some web developers choose to force font settings rather than letting readers choose what works for them. Again, likely valuing cosmetic looks instead of a readable site.

The zoom text only is great and has worked every time for me. Instead of enlarging the entire site, images and all, only the text is made bigger. So sites are not warping as much when I want to read them. Of course, this means zoom will not work for images now if you have been using it that way. But, I find it works well to open images in a new tab. Most of the time the image file is actually larger than the one used on the web page.

Zoom is a feature which allows you to increase or decrease either the size of a web page or the size of the text. This article explains how it works.

Source: Font size and zoom – increase the size of web pages | Firefox Help

Cleaning Up Your Website For Yourself and Readers

I routinely get rid of plugins and themes I’m not using. At this point I only use GeneratePress, so dealing with themes is as simple as not doing anything, I just have one theme and it updates itself.

If you have found one theme you like working with, get rid of the rest. Including the WordPress default themes. If you are not using them, don’t keep them hanging around asking to be updated for no reason. If you ever do want to go back to one of them, or use it to test your site, you can just download one again. I did this when I had an error and wanted to be sure it was nothing to do with my theme. It wasn’t.

Don’t keep plugins around for cosmetic reasons, in case you decide to use it later, or give it another try. Even dormant, deactivated plugins can cause errors on your site. Just make a note of the plugin name (or have a test site you can leave stuff like extra plugins) and delete it from your working/ active site.

If you have any plugins which are not automatically updated, get the newest file and update them. I have some plugins which I did not get through the WordPress plugin directory, some of those need to be manually updated. Plugins I like using with ClassicPress I update from files on GitHub. Plugins I have paid for I download from the developer’s site.

Most of the steps to clean up your site are simple. Get rid of the unnecessary clutter like:

  • old post revisions
  • tags you don’t use (or merge them with tags you make more use of)
  • pages no longer used (some may have been created by plugins)
  • comment spam you’ve been ignoring
  • user profiles which aren’t in use (update your own)
  • broken links in posts, resource lists, or bookmarks
  • image and media files not attached to anything (or not being used as headers, banners, etc.).
  • generic/default content from the theme you are using
  • plugins and themes (as I wrote above)

You can also clean up your database. Some plugins which tackle this also go through old post revisions and comment spam. Read the instructions and always backup your site before using a plugin to clean it. It is so much easier to delete the backup file you don’t need than to regret not having one while fixing the damage later. If in doubt, talk to your web host. See what they recommend.

The Broken Link Checker plugin does a really great job of finding broken links (including broken image file links) and helping you fix them.

Cleaning Up Posts

Cleaning up posts is a much bigger job to tackle. It will help if you have already done all the other cleaning first. That will help you find broken things and fix them or choose not to keep them. So some of your post clean up is already done.

My site isn’t for business, commercial or marketing so I don’t need to focus on a big post clean up to impress Google, or any other service. I clean up posts for human readers. I don’t mind to keep old posts around. Even the outdated content is an archive of things I have seen and done.

I am going through and updating links, or unlinking the original site if I can’t find another option. It’s fun and sad to see which sites I remember and which are still online. I get sidetracked trying to find people who used to run the sites and see what they are doing now.

I do have broken image files, a lot of them. I moved and merged my sites together. I’ve been slowly cleaning up which means finding old images on my hard drive or making new images to replace those I can’t find. I’m far from done. If you have moved things around chances are you have a trail of broken links and images too.

Also, posts I planned to write but have left as draft or pending posts. After sitting in pending awhile the original post you had linked to or gotten the idea from may be gone. Or, the idea has lost its importance, relevance, or inspiration for you. If you haven’t published something in there after a year you have moved on from it or have plenty of other fresher content and ideas to keep you busy.

This is a list online, no doubt there are others. I’d add to the point about similar content and say that you could link all the related posts instead of merging or out right deleting them. Turn them into a series of posts with an index linking all the relevant posts at the bottom (or top) of each post.

  • Content that is out of date or irrelevant now and needs to be deleted.
  • Information that needs to be updated (in particular, check your About and Contact pages).
  • Poor-quality content that’s better off removed or replaced.
  • Content that is too similar (for instance, if you have two posts on identical subjects, you may want to only keep the best one).

Source: Complete Guide to Cleaning Up Your WordPress Website – DreamHost

Celebrate the end of the clean up, especially if you had a lot of clean up to do.

Keep the clean up in mind as you publish and maintain your site. Not everything has to wait for a once a year cleaning. Maintain as you go along.

Phone Slavery

I do not understand the popularity of mobile/ cell phones.

Today my brother phoned twice. I think it was him, he didn’t say much other than hello once and then hang up. I phoned back, once. Did not hear from him again so far. But another call came which was junk of some kind, not my brother.

The caller mumbled something I could not understand at all and then was gone. I don’t think it was a wrong number. We keep getting phone calls from some ad someone posted somewhere online, something adult I think. Most of the calls are late at night and all have been men. One of them I talked to said it was something adult, I didn’t ask for details. This has been going on for more than a year, since before the start of the covid pandemonia. (I know that’s not a real word, but its my site).

I kept the phone near by for over an hour in case my brother phoned again. It was annoying having it hanging around while I tried to get laundry done, dumped coffee grounds outside, made coffee, and all the other little things around the house day to day. Why do people choose to live like this? A slave to a telephone.

When mobile phones started they were sold as something you would need in an emergency. There were commercials with people (often young women) stranded on the side of the road calling their parents. Very effective advertising. But, the truth, the reality, is very different years later. When did anyone last have an emergency they needed a mobile phone for versus all the times it is used for silly little things they could have done with or without a mobile phone which costs an arm and a leg each month?

I know of people who spend hundreds of dollars each month on their phone and packages. I balk at paying another $50 a month for a phone along with what I already pay for the Internet and TV. Instead I use MagicJack and pay about $20 a year, including the phone number.

What do people use these phones for, in reality? I see people watching videos, playing games, etc. What I seldom see people using them for – phone calls! Now they want everyone to send a text, not to call them and expect them to answer. I can understand not wanting to feel like a slave to your phone, having to actually answer the thing every time someone calls. But… why not just use email. If you’re reading texts on your phone and paying hundreds of dollars each month, think of all the money you could be spending on fancy coffee, travel, clothes you don’t need, etc instead. Email doesn’t cost anything more than you already pay to access the Internet. How is it worth spending so much more every month to basically read email on a mobile phone? Did you laptop/ desktop die?

Maybe you never bought a desktop or laptop or any other kind of computer. I could understand choosing a smaller phone versus a larger computer. Except for the fact that they cost about the same and the phone has a much smaller screen which makes it harder to see and any websites you look at are smushed up to fit the tiny screen. How is this an advantage? Buy a tablet and check email, at very little extra cost.

Stop being a slave to your mobile phone.

Still haven’t heard from my brother today. I put the phone away back in its cradle ages ago. Likely I will hear from him in email sometime today, at his convenience.

Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Authors I Have Liked

This post is a place to share the books and authors I really have enjoyed. I follow most of these writers on Twitter as well. I like to see how their writing routine works – when they’re actually writing and not just talking to hopeful writers. I also hear about what they are working on and what’s coming next in the series. Plus, they announce contests on Twitter and their websites too.

My favourite books in the paranormal/ urban fantasy genre have humour along with vampires, dragons, werewolves, witches, ghosts, and all the rest. The humour brings a story and especially a character, to life for me. Without humour they seem kind of flat on the page. Even a villain can have a wicked sense of humour.

I don’t like a lot of sex either. It just gets boring pretty fast. I write my own erotica and romance so it could be I’m just taking it for granted or smothered in the stuff when it comes to reading it. When it comes to sex in books I usually skip it. If a book has a lot of sex scenes and I’m turning a page, then another page and still another couple of pages after that, I lose interest. Too much mucking around with sex and the action and the storyline suffer for it.

The Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Writers I have Liked (So Far)

Reader Groups

Read Some Reviews and Find New Writers to Try

Digital Camera: Zoom, Focus, Pixels and Batteries

Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3I take photos of buildings, abandoned sites and the odd wild flowers in the landscape. Sometimes I get talked into family photos too. I don’t mind family photos but they always require more uploading via email, Facebook and other places so family can share them. It’s odd how the personal stuff takes up more time than the photos I really love to take.

One thing you should do right away is get a decent camera bag. Take the time to find one which has a hard outer shell so your camera bag can take some abuse without harming the camera inside of it.

Zoom and Focus for Macro and Long Distance Photographs

One thing I look for in a camera is a lot of optical zoom. Most people don’t need a lot of zoom. Step closer rather than zoom in. However, I photograph abandoned places – often on the other side of a barrier, like a ‘No Trespassing” sign. So, I don’t have the option of getting closer myself. Instead I use the zoom to bring the picture to me. I love zoom!

Someone else might want a camera with a faster speed, for action photography. In my case, things are pretty much staying right where they are.

Other photos I like to take are called macro. This means I get as close up as I can and fill my viewable screen with the entire image I am looking at. Macro photography gives you a new look at very small things. I use it for taking photos of wild flowers and insects usually. I push the camera lens as close to the subject as I can. I have to be careful not to get so close I touch it with the camera.

The camera I have right now isn’t the best one for giving a sharp focus when I use the full 10X optical zoom. I’ve also noticed it loses focus, or is hard to focus, when I am up close for macro photos. In the case of taking a macro photo I need to pull back in order to get a sharp, clear focus. When using the zoom I’ve learned to pull back then too in order not to lose the sharpness which I need to bring all the finer details into the long range photograph.

I have learned that the focus range needs to start with a small number, the smaller the better, in order for the camera to be able to get a clear focus when the subject is near your camera. I also know that the only zoom that keeps a sharp focus is the optical zoom. If you break into the range of digital zoom you lose your sharp focus and the photo framing can get out of whack too.

So camera focus depends on a few extra things but the focus range is an important feature to watch for when you look at getting a new camera.

FujiFilm FinePix SL300

Resolution: It’s in the Pixels

The resolution is the amount, or density, of pixels in the image. Pixels are tiny dots of colour which build up the photo as a whole. A high amount of megapixels lets you use the photos you take for larger sizes in processed images. But, for most people 3 MP (MegaPixels) will be all you need.

Images which are used online, for websites require less pixels than an image which you want to print as a photograph. Keep that in mind when looking for a new camera. Unless you are selling your photos professionally or printing them up for poster sized images, you don’t need high resolution images.

Battery Life for your Digital Camera

Digital camera batteries are either lithium or AA batteries. Use rechargeable batteries to save money and having more stuff to throw away. Lithium batteries last longer and are lighter but, they are hard to replace once they finally stop working. I’ve had a camera more than 3 years and have not needed to replace the lithium battery it came with. So replacing the battery is not something to worry about very much. Just take care of whatever batteries you use.

Things that ask more from your battery:

  • LCD screen
  • flash
  • zoom

Tips for saving and conserving battery power.

  • Don’t leave your camera on when you aren’t using it. Why rely on power saving when you could just turn it off.
  • Don’t leave your camera on long after your photos are uploaded. When it’s done, it’s done.
  • Don’t leave your camera battery out in sunlight. It likes cool, dark places.
  • Don’t use the flash when you can do without it. Low light can be good for photos.
  • Don’t use the zoom when you can move your camera (or yourself) closer instead.
  • Don’t spend time viewing the photos you have already taken. Upload them and then take your time reviewing them.

Wrist Straps and Camera Bags

A camera may come with a strap and a camera bag. The best thing about the camera bag that comes with your camera is that it fits your camera size. It may not be the best choice for keeping and carrying around your camera. Also, I very much prefer using a wrist strap versus a longer strap that goes over your shoulders (around your neck). A long strap leaves your camera dangling in front of you.

I like the wrist strap so I can keep the camera in my hand while knowing I have the strap around my wrist so I can’t drop the camera on the ground. My wrist strap has saved my camera from dropping twice so far. I’m careful but I still tend to be walking over uneven ground, watching for animals flying above me and hiding below my feet. I’ve had something startle me or I’ve just plain lost my footing and stumbled, countless times. I’m glad my camera strap was looped over my wrist then and not banging into my chest.

In the case of the camera bag, I took time to find one which was firm on the outside. I knew my camera was going to be bumped around in my backpack, my purse and so on. So a firm case was essential to protect it. I didn’t keep the case the camera came with for very long. It was soft and easily squished.

Simple Keyboard Shortcuts Everyone Using a Computer Should Know

I thought I should write about keyboard shortcuts. I’m surprised people don’t know them. Even simple things like using your keyboard for cut and paste functions.

Your computer mouse will work for most things you can do with the keyboard. Maybe the keyboard shortcuts will never be anything but extra knowledge or a backup plan for you… but, maybe knowing a simple keyboard shortcut will turn out to be a great thing.

Browser shortcuts save you time while you are looking at websites. Using the shortcuts on your keyboard can be simpler than right clicking the mouse, you don’t need to be as precise. Also, on sites which disable right clicks you can still use the keyboard shortcut to open new links or copy text.

These are the shortcuts I use most often. (Don’t type in the first ‘+’ it just means ‘and’ in this case).

shortcuts

Browser Shortcuts: Resources